Milford School Committee considers self-evaluation

The School Committee is working to establish a clear vision for its board, by both forming a self-evaluation process and developing a five-year plan.

Lindsay Corcoran/Daily News staff

The School Committee is working to establish a clear vision for its board, by both forming a self-evaluation process and developing a five-year plan.

Working off guidelines from the Massachusetts School Committee Association, Joseph Morais, the newest member on the board, laid out a plan to develop a self-evaluation system last Thursday.

“This is not to grade ourselves, but to identify best practices and focus on improvement,” Morais said.

Members agreed that self-evaluation would be a good idea for the board, but opted against the state association’s recommendation to use an outside facilitator for the evaluation.

“We haven’t done it before, but it could be very helpful. We have a good system, but it could be improved,” said member Christine Boyle. “I don’t think we need outside facilitator, though. I think when we go around and have discussions it’s always fair.”

Morais said one benefit of establishing the self-evaluation is it will help new members to the board, particularly because the evaluations will identify board processes new people should know.

“I think it is important that we can work through our processes and put them in place so that when a new member is elected, it’s very documented,” agreed School Committee member Mike Walsh.

Morais also said there is an opportunity through the process to look at more of the resources available from the state association.

The committee directed Morais and Patrick Holland to establish a subcommittee to plan out the evaluation and determine some criteria.

The committee is also in the process of developing a five-year strategic plan, first presented by Superintendent Bob Tremblay on Thursday.

“We’ve been playing catch-up with all of the state demands and we haven’t had the opportunity to really grow as a district and be an innovator,” Tremblay said.

Tremblay asked for the input of the committee members for the five-year plan, which is currently in the early stages and a draft is not expected until spring.

“We want to hear what the priorities of the current School Committee are, not necessarily what’s popular, but what could make Milford an industry leader,” Tremblay said.

A few areas Tremblay identified were goals for implementing a 1-1 iPad program for students and expanding foreign languages down to the middle school level and beyond.

Contact Lindsay Corcoran at 508-634-7582 or lcorcoran@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @LacorcMDN.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.